The Chavez problem

It’s no secret that Eric Chavez (stats) isn’t cutting it at DH. He’s hitting .220 with no home runs and a WAR of -0.4, which means a replacement player found in the minors would be better. He doesn’t look like his timing is rusty, he looks like he’s completely lost any power stroke. Hitting into a rally-killing double play yesterday was just the latest of his failures. Ron Washington noticed: He had Kevin Kouzmanoff intentionally walked to get to Chavvy in the eighth.

There’s only room for one left-handed DH on the roster without leaving the team dangerously short of position players. Jack Cust has expressed understandable unhappiness playing in Sacramento, especially with his wife and toddlers living in San Francisco. (I used to do the reverse commute once a week, daily would be a grind.) Plugging Cust’s Sacramento stats into a minor league equivalency calculator, his projected OPS in Oakland would be .694 to Chavez’s .580, as he’s heated up after an awful start. Chris Carter is another possibility (six HR’s), but as a righty he’d be a better replacement for Jake Fox.

Everyone who assumed the Chavez problem would take care of itself via the DL has been wrong. The A’s are unlikely to release a well-liked, highly paid home-grown player who’s been with the club since 1998. Cust isn’t so popular. But with the weakness of the Angels throwing the division race wide open, the team should give Chavez a choice: Accept a minor-league assignment or be released (unlike Cust, Chavez has enough seniority to say no and still be paid). Ideally, he’d retire and come back in 2011 as a broadcaster or roving infield instructor.